An article in the Economist examines the softening of demand for MBA degrees. It argues that MBA’s curricula must be kept current and relevant. I can testify first hand the wheels of academia spin a little too slowly sometimes. The economy has been in a fundamental transformation that has take many twists and turns over the past 10-15 years, but what is clear is that this is now an entrepreneurial economy in terms of expansion and growth. Most MBA programs are just starting to reflect these changes.
What we have done for years here at Belmont is to require a course on Entrepreneurship in our MBA core courses. We don’t teach them how to be entrepreneurs–that is for another course. Instead, we teach them about entrepreneurship so they can better understand the driver of the current economic expansion. They will buy from entrepreneurs, sell to entrepreneurs, compete with entrepreneurs, and many will work for entrepreneurial companies, so they need to understand that these companies are different than the corporate giants that most typical graduate classes tend to focus on. Happily, I have found that many of my colleagues here do talk about entrepreneurial businesses in many of the classes they teach to MBA’s. Graduate programs need to focus even more on this perspective if they want to remain relevant.
Rob over at BusinessPundit gives an interesting reflection on his experience at the University of Kentucky. That is where I got my MBA, but my degree is about a quarter century old now…I sure hope things have changed in the UK MBA program since then!
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